Paris: Mobile phones of at least five French ministers and diplomatic advisers to President Emmanuel capital sign on english vowel were infected by israelimade Pegasus spyware, sources said on Friday, confirming a report mediapart search website.
As Mediapart reported on Friday, French security services inspected the phone and detected the Macware, the intrusion believed to have taken place in 2019 and 2020. Pegasus, made by the Israeli firm NSO Group, can switch on a phone’s camera or mic and harvest its data, and was at the center of a storm in July, when a list of about 50,000 potential surveillance targets around the world appeared in the media. was leaked.
The media consortium behind the leak reported at the time that one of Macron’s phone numbers and that of several French ministers were on the list of possible targets. French officials declined to comment on Friday.
Five ministers are on target, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blance, Minister of Regional Cohesion Jacqueline Gourault, Minister of Agriculture Julian Denormandi, Minister of Housing Emmanuel Wargan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sebastian Lecornu, MediaPart said.
Two French sources, asking anonymity, confirmed the veracity of the report. “My phone is being investigated by the National IT Systems Security Agency, but I haven’t heard anything about the investigation yet, so I can’t comment at this stage,” Wargan told L’Opinion on Friday.
“The minister doesn’t have access to any state secrets, so we can’t really see the point of spying on him,” said one of his aides. In July, Le Monde reported that evidence of a hacking attempt had been found on the phone of former environment minister and close Macron aide François de Rougi, with the attempt reportedly taking place in Morocco.
As Mediapart reported on Friday, French security services inspected the phone and detected the Macware, the intrusion believed to have taken place in 2019 and 2020. Pegasus, made by the Israeli firm NSO Group, can switch on a phone’s camera or mic and harvest its data, and was at the center of a storm in July, when a list of about 50,000 potential surveillance targets around the world appeared in the media. was leaked.
The media consortium behind the leak reported at the time that one of Macron’s phone numbers and that of several French ministers were on the list of possible targets. French officials declined to comment on Friday.
Five ministers are on target, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blance, Minister of Regional Cohesion Jacqueline Gourault, Minister of Agriculture Julian Denormandi, Minister of Housing Emmanuel Wargan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sebastian Lecornu, MediaPart said.
Two French sources, asking anonymity, confirmed the veracity of the report. “My phone is being investigated by the National IT Systems Security Agency, but I haven’t heard anything about the investigation yet, so I can’t comment at this stage,” Wargan told L’Opinion on Friday.
“The minister doesn’t have access to any state secrets, so we can’t really see the point of spying on him,” said one of his aides. In July, Le Monde reported that evidence of a hacking attempt had been found on the phone of former environment minister and close Macron aide François de Rougi, with the attempt reportedly taking place in Morocco.
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